Nico Castel
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Nico Castel (born August 1, 1931) is a comprimario tenor and well-known language and diction coach, as well as a prolific translator of libretti and writer of books on singing diction.
[edit] Biography
Castel was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and raised in Venezuela by multilingual parents and a German nanny and attended a French school. He is the descendant of a Sephardic Jewish family with roots in 15th century Castile.[1] He moved to New York City at the age of 16 to pursue a singing career. In 1958, he became the first winner of the "Joy in Singing" award, which launched his career with a New York Town Hall debut recital. Soon afterwards, he made his debut with Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera, and then the Metropolitan Opera in 1969, where he has sung for over 35 years and has served for over 25 years as staff diction coach. A polyglot, Castel speaks Portuguese, German, French, Spanish, Italian and English with native or near-native fluency. Castel is an internationally known language and diction coach and teacher.
Castel also has over 200 operatic roles in his repertoire. His singing career has taken him around the world to work with such companies as Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City; Finnish National Opera, Helsinki; The New Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv; Opera Metropolitana, Caracas; Teatro São Carlos Opera, Lisbon; Spoleto Festival, Spoleto, Italy; Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Florence; Semper Oper, Dresden; and in the U.S., the opera companies of Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago Ravinia Festival, San Antonio, New Orleans, Baltimore, Miami, Santa Fe, Central City, and St. Louis, among others.
Castel is on the faculties of The Juilliard School of Music and Mannes College The New School for Music in New York and is a noted lecturer and teacher at universities and conservatories throughout the world. His language and diction classes are taught at The Juilliard School, Manhattan Music Division, Eastman Music Division, University of Indiana, New York University, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Opera Center, Pittsburgh Opera Center, and A.I.M.S. (Graz, Austria). Since 1992 he has been Adjunct Professor of Music at Boston University. Castel and his wife, director and voice teacher Carol Cates Castel, also teach on the faculty of the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium in Spoleto, Italy (www.spoletoarts.com), recognized as one of the finest training programs in Italy for singers.
Among Castel's recordings are Manon (with Beverly Sills, 1970) and Les contes d'Hoffmann (with Sills and Norman Treigle, 1972), both conducted by Julius Rudel.
Castel lives in New York City. He has one child (with his former wife, Nancy Castel), Sasha Castel, who currently lives in Canberra, Australia.
[edit] Publications
Castel has also translated numerous libretti and diction manuals. His publications include:
- Complete Opera Libretti Translation Series (published by Leyerle Publications, Geneseo, New York)
- The Nico Castel Ladino Song Book (published by Tara Publications, Cedarhust, New York)
- A Singer's Manual of Spanish Lyric Diction (published by Excalibur Press, New York)
